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CousinIT

(9,151 posts)
Tue Jan 21, 2020, 08:04 PM Jan 2020

1st case in the US - Trump stripped CDC of funding to fight such diseases as the deadly coronavirus

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/21/amid-years-funding-cuts-public-health-first-us-case-chinas-coronavirus-detected

Officials in Washington State reported Tuesday that a resident was diagnosed with the coronavirus which was first detected in Wuhan, China last month, leading federal public health agencies which have suffered billions of dollars in cuts in recent years to issue warnings and post information about the illness.

"This is an evolving situation and again, we do expect additional cases in the United States and globally," Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Washington Post.

On social media, observers in both the U.S. and Canada noted that the spread of the coronavirus follows cuts to the CDC and other agencies.

The Trust for America's Health (TFAH), a nonpartisan public health advocacy group, published a report last April saying that public health efforts are currently underfunded by $4.5 billion.

"Recent increases to funding for public health emergency preparedness, including for weather-related emergencies, have not made up for resources lost in earlier years, let alone emerging threats," the group wrote. "The CDC also lacks sufficient dedicated funding to adequately support the cross-cutting, foundational capabilities that form the backbone of comprehensive public health systems at the federal, state, and local levels."

As Modern Healthcare reported at the time, the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) provides state and local health agencies with the bulk of their funding, but the fund has been slashed numerous times in recent years.

In 2012, President Barack Obama signed a bill that diverted more than $6 billion from the fund over nine years to make up for cuts to Medicare physician payments. President Donald Trump's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in 2017 slashed the fund by $750 million.
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1st case in the US - Trump stripped CDC of funding to fight such diseases as the deadly coronavirus (Original Post) CousinIT Jan 2020 OP
Yep . . . Iliyah Jan 2020 #1
i overheard two students today. one American, one Chinese (they're buds) . the Chinese Kurt V. Jan 2020 #2

Kurt V.

(5,624 posts)
2. i overheard two students today. one American, one Chinese (they're buds) . the Chinese
Tue Jan 21, 2020, 08:09 PM
Jan 2020

student said his parents told him not to come home for xmas break bc of this. yikes.

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